


Game Night

by RainbowBuddy, Rohad



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Amity is Hooty's natural predator, Competitive, F/F, Games, Gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-13 21:53:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29160729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowBuddy/pseuds/RainbowBuddy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rohad/pseuds/Rohad
Summary: Love is a game that two can play.In this game, there are no losers.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 74
Kudos: 444





	1. Chapter 1

How had it all come to this? 

That was the distant question in the back of Amity’s mind as she laid flat on her back atop the ugly, muddy green, and stain-spotted rug that covered the Owl House’s living room floor. 

The rug's questionable state of cleanliness however was just as distant a thought in her head as the first while she stared up at a pair of wide, bright, brown eyes that were looking back down at her, appearing just as surprised as Amity felt. Though she was much too preoccupied to notice that, nor the dull pain in the back of her head where she had smacked against the floor on impact.

No, no, she was much too busy gearing up to pass out to worry about something as trivial as a minor concussion! 

Her face was as red and glowing hot as molten oakstone as she stared up at Luz, hovering over her on her knees, both hands planted on either side of the witchling’s head and staring down at her. Her face was twisted up with worry while bedlam erupted all around them, but even that, she was deaf to in the moment.

"Spit them out, you half-witted cur!" Lilith shouted, making another grab for Hooty as he twisted and stretched around the living room, screeching. Brightly colored slips of paper sticking out of his beak as he stretched out of reach of all the hands making grabs for him. 

“Ugh, Hooty!” Eda growled, swinging her staff at the house demon, who dipped out of the way, squealing. "Just grab him!" 

"Get me down!" Gus screeched, hanging upside down from a section of the demon's body stretched over the couch.

"Hold on, Gus!" Willow yelled, chasing after the boy. 

"Forget him, help me!" King squealed, claws clutched into the back of Gus's shirt and kicking his feet wildly.

"Hooty!” Eda snarled as he whipped by again, narrowly avoiding another smack of her staff and twisting around a lamp.

Luz shielded her from the slobbery little green and red plastic pieces that rained down on them as the infernal, bird-tube whizzed overhead making that skin-crawling choking noise as he tried to swallow another mouthful of game pieces.

That's right.

It was…

"Game night?" Amity cocked her head, looking at Gus and Willow as they stood on the front steps of Hexside that afternoon after classes. She had just been about to make her way home for a relaxing weekend when the two had flagged her down at the bottom of the steps.

“Yeah, human games!” Gus bounced on his toes excitedly, flicking at his own ears if for no other reason than to have something to do with his hands to help dissipate his excited energy. Willow rolled her eyes fondly at the younger witch before turning her attention back to Amity and nodding.

“Luz found a box filled with human games and we're going over tonight to play and have snacks. Just a fun game night… also, I think she needs a distraction.” Willow frowned and some of Gus' excited energy leaked out of him and he frowned, stopping his bouncing.

“A distraction?” Amity’s brows wrinkled between her eyes. What did Luz need to be distracted from? They were about to have two weeks off from classes before the beginning of the Autumn semester…

Oh.

Today was the last day of summer. Luz was supposed to go home today. Something that wouldn’t be happening now, not with the portal destroyed.

“Oh… right.” Amity frowned, clutching her textbooks closer to her chest. She couldn’t begin to imagine how Luz must be feeling right now. Trapped in the demon realm with no way to return home and not knowing even if she ever would ever be able to again.

“We figured we could all go over, play some games and cheer her up. What do you say?” Willow asked her and Amity chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. 

She wanted to go, of course, to make sure Luz was okay and help her, but at the same time, she wasn’t exactly having an easy time… functioning, around the human. It was embarrassing and infuriating all at the same time. She could know exactly what she wanted to do or say but the minute Luz turned those bright, shining eyes on her, or smiled in that way that made her stomach drop into her feet and her heart pick up tempo, it was like all thought vanished from her head. 

She still cringed internally at the memory of: 'cute uniforms? Sweating?'

Then, of course, panicking and running off. 

Her mind and her heart were at war. Her brain told her to save face and not go, lest she embarrass herself, not just in front of Luz, but their friends, not to mention Lilith and the Owl Lady.

Her heart said go, that Luz must be hurting and could use her friends to cheer her up.

Even though the word 'friend' stung her, just a little. 

"I… I don't know," she finally mumbled, fingers digging into the cover of her book. 

"You said she'd jump at the chance to go!" Gus turned to Willow.

Amity froze at that. There was no way Willow knew, it just wasn't possible!

She glanced up at the plant witch, who was looking at Gus, but she caught Amity's look from the corner of her eye and the edges of her mouth tugged upward in a smug, nearly imperceptible smile. Gus missed it, no doubt. Amity did not.

Her cheeks flared and her shoulders bunched up around her ears, fingernails digging crescent shaded divots in the hard leather covers of her books. 

She knew. Willow definitely knew!

"She didn't even invite me!" she managed to bark out, though she didn't look at either of them and clutched her books tighter to her chest.

"Well, technically she didn't invite any of us…," Willow hedged. "We got out of class before her and Eda was waiting to pick her up and invited us over to play, to take her mind off it.”

Amity had been over to the owl house enough times to know, that sounded like something the wild witch would do for her apprentice. She liked to play at aloofness, something Amity would recognize anywhere, but she obviously cared about Luz. 

She could relate. So, shouldn’t she help, if she were able, to ease some of Luz’s pain?

“Alright…” She jerked her head in a sharp nod and the other two witchlings perked up, grinning. 

“To the Owl house!” Gus cheered, turning and taking off down the path that led away from the school, leaving both girls to hurry along after him. 

~ ~ 

Amity tapped quickly on her scroll as they walked, typing out a message to her sister about what day it was and the general situation. She got an affirmative that Emira would cover for her with their parents, though, whether or not she said anything to Edric was still up in the air. 

She really, really hated having to ask Emira for a favor, knowing it would come with stipulations later on, but she needed someone to cover for her. She was supposed to go straight home after school, instead, she was making her way towards the owl house and she needed someone to explain her absence. Her siblings could be a lot, but they did come through when she really needed them.

A twirl of her finger spelled the device away as they approached the mishmashed shack of a house that Luz called home.

"Hoot, hoot, who goes there!?" Hooty's shrill voice was like nails on a chalkboard to the youngest Blight as they stopped outside the closed door

"We're here to see Luz," Willow grimaced as the house demon slithered out of the door to hover over them, beady eyes unblinking. 

"Hmmm, I dunno!”

Amity growled, irritation rising rapidly for every second she had to look at him.

“Just let us in you stupid-!” She took a menacing step forward, fist raised, and Hooty shot back into the door.

“Alright, alright, Yeesh!” The door flung itself inward letting them in. 

"Ah, you're here. Edalyn said you might be coming," Lilith greeted them from her place on the couch, teacup in hand.

Gus and Willow greeted the former coven leader cautiously, the memory of their fight with her in the emperor's castle still fresh in their minds. Amity pursed her lips, biting back any scathing words that threatened to slip out at the sight of her. 

She already had some bad blood with the elder Clawthorne sister after Lilith had used her to cheat during her and Luz’s duel at the covention that had turned into the two sisters trying to one-up each other - using their apprentices as weapons. Add on everything that she had been told had transpired at the Emperor’s castle and the Conformitorium? Well, even the sight of the elder Clawthrone left a bad taste in her mouth. If Lilith noticed the sour look Amity was giving her, she made no motion to show it, nor did she say anything as she stood from the couch and retreated to the kitchen.

A moment later, the Owl Lady herself stuck her head out the doorway and grinned when her eyes fell on the three of them. 

“The nerd brigade’s here, perfect!” She clapped her hands together. “Luz has been begging us to play these games with her lately and I figured today…” she stopped and glanced over at the stairs. “Well, she’d have more fun with you dorks, than with me and this nerd.” She jerked a thumb at Lilith, who scoffed at her. “Maybe… distract her today?” she asked them, cocky grin fading into something a little more subdued. Lilith too was frowning and not looking at anyone in particular. 

The three witchlings nodded and Eda smiled at them before turning toward the stairs.

“Hey, Kid, get down here!” she hollered, making everyone else flinch at the sudden yell. The sound of the thumping of feet on the floor above them alerted them to the human’s approach long before they could see her.

“What is it Ed-” her voice trailed off as she thundered down the stairs, pausing when she saw her friends standing in the living room. “What are you guys doing here?” she asked, looking between them and Eda, who broke out into a wide grin as she hurried down the stairs to stand in front of them. 

“You’ve been harping on at us to play those board games with you for a solid week now, but I figured, rather than playing with an old lady and me…,” she started, causing Lilith to scowl at her. “It would be more fun for you to invite the geek group to play.” She waved a hand at the other three teens. 

“You guys came all this way to play games with us?” Luz cocked her head as she looked between the three of them.

“Absolutely,” Willow smiled at her, and Gus was once again bouncing on his toes as she turned to him.

“Why wouldn’t I want to play human games?!” He asked like he couldn't even believe that was a valid question. Luz chuckled at the illusion track student before her eyes fell on Amity, who froze solid under her warm and curious gaze. 

The silence in the room was near deafening as they stood there looking at each other, Luz waiting for some kind of response and Amity seized with a case of sudden nerves, face shifting from pale to pink and pinker by the second. 

Luz frowned as she watched.

“You okay, Amity?” Her question seemed to jerk the mint haired witch from her suspended state.

“Games!” she yelped, making everyone jerk in surprise. “I mean, yes. I’m fine, I came to play the games…,” she managed to spit out at last.

Somewhere behind her, she swore she heard Eda snort, but she ignored it, even as the tips of her ears burned red. 

“That’s great, I’ll go get the box!” Luz’s smile was blinding as she turned and ran back up the stairs, feet pounding on the wood. 

Eda watched her go with a smile.

“She certainly seems more cheery than she was this morning,” Lilith mused, standing at her sister’s side. Eda hummed in agreement before turning her attention back to the three younger witches.

“Well, throw down your junk and get comfortable. She should be back any minute and I’m gonna see what kind of snacks we got.” With that, she turned and walked back into the kitchen, Lilith trailing along behind her.

“Snacks?” King perked up from his place on the couch. “I demand snacks too!” He scuttled off the coach and followed after them. 

The thumping upstairs continued in cacophonous booms before the noise finally died down, only for Luz to reappear on the stairs a moment later with a large, stained cardboard box held in both arms.

“I’m so glad you guys are here! I found these in one of the spare rooms last week and most of them still have all their pieces!” She said excitedly as she dropped the box onto the floor.

“Oh!” Gus wasted no time digging into the box, which rattled and shook as he dug around. “What’s this?” He held up a box with brightly colored little people on it.

“Candyland, that's a game for little kids though,” she explained and the boy’s ears dropped. “We can still play it sometime,” she assured him and set it on the floor, bending over to rummage through it herself. She leaned further and further over till she tumbled in with a squeal and a thump, landing on Gus who had also been buried up to his waist within. 

“Luz!”

“Sorry!”

Willow and Amity shared a look as the two’s legs stuck out of the top of the box, kicking and wiggling, cardboard straining beneath their weight. Amity and Willow both rolled their eyes before Willow grabbed Gus’s legs and hauled him out while Amity wrapped her arms around the squirming human’s waist to yank her from her cardboard prison.

She sprang free, sending them both sprawling backward onto the carpet in a tangled heap of limbs. Amity grunted as Luz fell on top of her, knocking the wind out of her.

“Sorry, Amity!” She quickly scrambled off the witch, box clenched triumphantly in hand as she climbed to her feet. 

“It’s fine…,” she grumbled, rubbing a hand over her stomach. 

‘Let me help you.” 

She looked up at Luz, who held out a hand. She only hesitated a moment before slipping hers into it, allowing Luz to pull her back to her feet.

“Whatcha got, Luz?” Gus asked as she held a box under her arm. The human grinned brightly and held it up for them to see.

“Monopoly!” 

“What’s…'monopoly’?” Amity cocked a brow, testing the new word in her mouth.

“I am so glad you asked!” Luz grinned at her, holding the box up and giving it a shake. Whatever was inside jangled and rustled. The absolute look of glee on Luz’s face made her heart stutter in her chest and her ears twitch ever so slightly.

Luz paused, eyes drawn to the witch’s ears. Had they just… wiggled?

She opened her mouth to ask when Eda and King reappeared, with Lilith in tow and a tray of snacks in hand. 

“So, what are you dorks playing?” she asked, sitting the tray on the table and King on the floor, where he sat, happily eating from his own bag of food. 

“Monopoly! If that’s okay with you guys?” She turned to her friends. “It takes at least three people to play properly and back home it was only me and…,” she paused for a second and her unspoken words hung awkwardly in the air. 

“Monopoly, yes!” Amity managed to spit out before anyone else and Luz’s eyes zeroed in on her. “Teach us how to play.” She nodded resolutely, even as her cheeks took on a slight rosy hue. Willow bit back a laugh in the form of a cough behind her hand and nodded. 

“Sounds good to me.” She smiled and Gus nodded rapidly. 

“Monopoly!” he shouted in agreement and Luz beamed at them.

“Great, so it’s pretty easy. You each get some money and you’re trying to take everyone else’s. The person with all the money at the end of the game wins,” she said, explaining the basics simply.

“Money, you say?” Eda hummed, leaning over her apprentice, a certain gleam in her dual-colored eyes. 

~ ~ 

“Okay, we’re all set up and everyone knows the rules?” Luz asked, looking around at her friends, as well as Eda and Lilith. The latter looked quite indifferent from her place across from Luz on the coach and the former eyed the board hungrily from her place next to Luz.

“I’m ready!” Gus smiled at her, King having taken up a new place on the illusion track student’s shoulders and Willow nodded in agreement. 

Amity hummed as she read over the rule pamphlet, determined to learn the ins and outs of this game before it even started. Most of it was understandable enough, though there were some terms she didn’t exactly understand. What was an electric company? 

The front door swung inwards and Hooty saw them gathered around the coffee table and stretched his head inside to hover over them.

“Hoot, can I play!?” He asked, body undulating with excitement. 

“Sorry, Hooty. We have all the players we need, maybe next time.” Luz cringed as the house demon turned to her, but only for a moment as she dumped the bag of pieces onto the board in a clatter of metal and plastic. 

“Oooh… shiny…” He hovered closer to the board, mouth watering, only for Eda to smack him with the back of her hand, sending him coiling back with a hiss.

“Get out of here, Hooty!” the Owl Lady warned with a frown.

“Sheesh, fine!” He huffed, sulking back into the door, though it remained open as he watched them from across the room. 

Amity glanced over the top of the paper to glare at the infernal house demon that was watching them with beady eyes.

“Amity?”

“Huh?” She jerked, turning towards the call of her name. Luz was looking at her curiously. “S-sorry, what?” she asked, but Luz only smiled, because that was Luz. At the other end of the table, Willow was giving her a knowing look that made her face flush. Gus sat at her side as oblivious to what was happening as Luz herself. 

“I asked if you were ready to start?” She asked again and Amity nodded, ignoring Willow’s look. “Okay, you first.” she handed the dice over to her, fingers grazing her palm as she did and sending a shiver up the witch’s spine.

Thirty minutes.

That was how long it took for everything to go wrong. 

Honestly, Amity thought it would have taken far less time than that, but it seemed to be a good day for the residents of the owl house.

The game was fairly simple and, to the surprise of no one, Eda picked it up very quickly. She went after everyone but seemed to have a special place for Lilith in her pillaging heart. 

The two sisters were glaring at each other over the board as Eda shook the dice. 

“I’m going to make you beg me for it.” The Owl Lady smirked and Lilith scowled back. She needed a five or higher to skip over the whole row of Lilith’s hotel covered properties. This would allow her to buy the final unmanned property on the board; the one Lilith needed to complete her last property set.

“I’d rather choke,” she sneered, eyes narrowing in defiance. 

The four teens sitting around the table glanced between them and each other nervously, waiting for the roll of the dice. Things had started fairly peacefully too. That was until the sisters had gotten into an argument over the tax on a property, setting a chain of events in motion that no one was yet sure where they led. Like Lilith buying enough hotels to cover every square inch of her property on one-fourth of the board with the sole intention of trapping Eda in it. Instead, the witch had managed to ensnare Gus and Willow, bleeding them dry and ejecting them from the game in one shebang. They retired to the couch to watch the impending disaster. 

Luz glanced down at the one property card she had left after having to mortgage the rest due to falling on a row of Eda’s properties. She was not very good at this game, but she had at least been having fun; she glanced at Amity from the corner of her eye.

The mint-haired witch had really seemed to be getting into it too, with that giddy little smile pulling at her lips when she landed on an unclaimed space to make her own and her own natural competitiveness shining through, though not nearly on the same level as the Clawthorne sisters. It made Luz grin too. She wasn’t fairing all that much better than Luz at the moment; waiting to see who was going to win the Clawthorne showdown. 

Luz could tell though, no matter which sister came out on top in the next few moments, things were going to get ugly. Now she understood all those memes about monopoly being a friendship ender. Though, if the sisters could get over the curse thing, then surely monopoly wouldn’t put an end to their relationship. 

She glanced between them as they glared and scowled at each other and frowned to herself. She was not as sure of that as she had been at the start of the game. Especially not as feathers began to sprout across the two’s arms. 

No one noticed Hooty hovering nearby, watching the glinting plastic and metal game pieces with rapt attention.

It had not taken long to realize that while sharing the curse made it so Eda no longer turned full-on ‘owl beast’ when the two of them got worked up, symptoms started to crop up Like now.

Feathers were sprouting along their arms as they glared at each other and finally Eda released the dice.

They might as well have rolled across the table in slow motion for how long it felt like it took before they slowly spun to a stop atop the board.

A six and a five.

"Ha!” Eda jumped up, arms thrust overhead. “How d’ya like that, sister?” she laughed obnoxiously as Lilith scowled at her, feathers ruffling before she looked back down at the board, eyes widening before a smirk pulled at her lips.

“Try counting that again, sister.” Lilith smirked up at her, cutting Eda’s celebration short. She frowned and leaned over the board, counting the spaces.

“Nine, ten, elev…” she stopped, finger hovering over the dreaded blue corner space.

“Go to jail, Edalyn.” Lilith’s smirk was downright wicked at this point.

Eda scoffed, planting a hand on her hip.

“Nice try, Lily, but I have this!” She reached into her hair and pulled out a little orange Chance card.

“Get out of jail free!” she declared, wiping the smug look off her sister’s face. 

Luz frowned, eyebrows scrunching between her eyes as she glanced down at Amity’s pile of cards and money. An orange ‘get out of jail free’ card, was sitting in plain view of the table. 

“But Amity has the only get out of jail free Chance card…” Luz reached over and held it up, drawing everyone's eyes to her. 

A heart beat later.

“You cheated!” Lilith snarled, swiftly rising to her feet to point an accusatory finger at Eda, her feathers fluffing in irritation. 

“You can’t prove anything.” She scowled and Lilith sneered, lunging over the table and digging her hands into Eda’s mane of hair; the witchlings jumped to their feet and out of the line of fire. As the two snarled and struggled, hotels and game money fluttered out of gray locks onto the floor.

“I knew it!” The elder Clawthorne growled as they pulled at each other's hair.

“Guys, stop, it’s just a game!” Luz moved to stop the fight when someone gave a particularly hard shove and the table jumped, sending pieces rattling rolling across the board.

Triggering Hooty.

“Prey! Hoot Hoot!” The house demon dove down and skimmed across the table, scooping up a mouthful of game pieces.

“Hooty, no!” Luz shouted, lunging for him, but he slithered away, stretching out of her reach.

“It's okay, Luz, I got him!” Gus yelled, shooting past her. 

“Wait, what?!” King squeaked from his place still clinging to Gus’s shoulders as the witch ran forward and jumped, wrapping his arm around his tubular body. He yelped as he slipped around Hooty’s slippery form to hang upside down, King dangling from his shirt. 

“Mayday!” King squealed. 

Hooty squawked as the sisters finally separated and made a grab for him, sending feathers, both theirs and his, flying into the air as they tried to wrangle the house demon.

“Spit them out, Hooty!” Eda snapped at him as he slipped out of her grip. She growled and held out a hand. Things banged and clattered as her staff came flying into the room and into her open hand. She took a swing and smacked the house demon, who squawked again, dropping a few pieces as he flailed about. He zipped around the room and wrapped himself around all the furniture while the sisters yelled and shouted at him. Eda smacked him with the staff again and he made an abrupt turn shooting straight at Amity.

“Watch out!” That was the last thing she heard before all the wind was knocked out of her and the back of her head slammed onto the wooden floor, the threadbare rug doing nothing to soften the blow.

She hissed between clenched teeth, eyes squeezed tight against the sharp pain in the back of her head that was quickly fading.

It almost vanished completely when she opened her eyes and found Luz hovering over her worriedly.

She could feel her face start to burn as she stared up into the human’s deep brown eyes. 

That was how they had gotten to be here.

"Are you okay?!" Luz asked, eyes trailing over her, as if searching for injury, which only made Amity's pink face burn all the darker as slobber covered game pieces dropped and clattered to the floor around them.

Luz made a face when a few hit her in the back of the head as she continued to look down at Amity questioningly, while everyone else screamed and shouted.

"Fine! I'm fine!" she insisted, looking anywhere but at Luz. Her ears were pinned tight to the side of her head, no doubt as red as the rest of her face. 

Despite the deafening noise going on all around them, she was hyper aware of every sound and move Luz made.

So, when Luz sniffled, Amity heard it immediately and her head whipped to look up at the human still leaning over her, eyes slowly glazed over with unshed tears as she looked over at the chaotic scene unfolding around them. She bit her lip, as though it would hold the tears at bay.

She turned back to Amity, desperately trying to keep a straight face in front of the witch. 

“I’m sorry, Amity… I just wanted to play with you guys… and not think about…,” she stopped herself and sniffled again, which dug painfully at Amity’s heart. “I didn’t mean for everything to spiral out of control like this…” Her lip trembled and Amity’s fingers twitched at her sides. She wanted to reach up and wipe away the tears that had begun to gather in Luz’s eyes. If ever there was anyone who didn’t deserve anything but the best, it was Luz.

She couldn’t make her hands reach up, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

She could still do something though.

She frowned, face setting hard as stone as she pushed herself up, forcing Luz off her and she climbed to her feet, lips pulled back over her teeth as she stood, a single spot of calm in the eye of the storm while everyone else continued to scream and flail around the room. Her hand shot up, bright magenta spell circle blazing to life. 

Before anyone could blink, an abomination hand shot out of the floor and seized Hooty's body stretched across the living room in it's grip.

The house demon choked as Amity clinched her fist, the abomination hand mimicked her, squeezing the demon like a tube of toothpaste.

He hacked and choked, game pieces dropping to the floor in a symphony of quiet chimes and clack's as metal and plastic bits hit the floor. Gus slid off the house demon, dropping to the floor bonelessly as Willow rushed to his side.

The sisters were panting, bent over and catching their breath as Hooty wiggled and squeaked in the fist’s iron grip. 

~ ~ ~ 

It took another half hour to get the living room back in a somewhat clean state, after which Eda boxed up Monopoly and stood in front of the witchlings, looking very serious. As she held the box, Lilith stood beside her, arms crossed over her chest.

“Never again.” 

That was all that needed to be said as the box was tossed into the larger one housing all the other games, to be forgotten. 

They ate the snacks that had somehow managed to survive the battle and not long after, Gus and Willow had to leave. They both hugged Luz tightly before they left, leaving only Amity. 

Lilith had wandered away and King was lying curled up on the couch while Eda did something in the kitchen. The distant sounds of things being moved around echoed out into the living room.

Amity ran a finger nervously over the rim of her cup, Appleblood sloshing around the bottom as she glanced over at Luz from the corner of her eye. She seemed much happier now than when she had been hovering over her on the floor.

She was no longer on the verge of tears and looked quite content, but one look at her scroll told Amity that she needed to go. Emira wouldn’t be able to cover for her much longer.

Much as she hated to go.

She stood, drawing Luz’s attention as she set her cup down on the, now clean, coffee table. She finally turned to Luz, who looked up at her, already frowning, knowing what was coming.

“I need to head home,” she said and Luz nodded, already knowing.

She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder as Luz walked her to the front door. 

Hooty was still passed out from when Amity had squeezed him into unconsciousness. He snored quietly to himself as Luz opened the door for her and they stepped outside into the waning orange and violet hues of twilight, leaving them alone for all intents and purposes as Luz closed the door behind them.

They were quiet for a long moment before Amity finally took a breath and turned to Luz only to squeak as a pair of arms wrapped around her shoulders and Luz’s chin came to rest on her shoulder.

“Thank you…,” she mumbled quietly, giving a brief but tight squeeze. 

“I… you don’t…” Suddenly, Amity’s tongue was a mass of tight little knots that blocked her words from passing between her lips at every turn.

“I know why you guys came over today…,” her breath hitched and Amity blinked before reaching up and tentatively wrapped her arms around Luz’s waist, squeezing her back.

She was warm and smelled like the grass and something else, warm and earthy. Amity couldn’t help but bury her nose into the human’s hair as she hugged her back. Her face was hot and her skin tingled everywhere Luz was pressed against her, but she couldn’t find it in her to care at this very moment.

“Thank you for coming, it… It means a lot to me.” She heard Luz mumble thickly into her ear.

'Anything for you.' That was what Amity wanted to say.

She'd never be able to though, she knew that much. She'd never have the courage to risk Luz's friendship, even for the possibility of something more.

The idea of being rejected by the only person she'd ever felt this way about and to possibly lose her closest friend all at the same time was too much. 

She would have to be happy with what she had. So, she would. She would be there for Luz, whenever and however she needed her.

"You're welcome," she whispered instead before Luz finally released her and with a final wave, Amity hurried off into the woods that surrounded the owl house.

She smiled to herself as she walked through the woods; only the barest hint of melancholy painted across her face.


	2. Chapter 2

Dappled moonlight filtered through her bedroom window. It danced around the room, casting shadows in its wake.

It was late. Too late to be up, really. The witch knew her parents would be upset if they knew, but sleep had eluded her tonight. So she had turned, as always, to her favorite insomniac activity.

Controlling her breath, she slowly lifted the heavy weights toward her chest. A bead of sweat ran down her short hair to drip against her neck and she smiled grimly, pushing through the burn to complete just one more repetition.

A small ding ran through her bedroom, but she ignored it in favor of completing her set. Resisting the temptation to let gravity bring the weights back down, she lets out a long, slow huff as she lowers her arms in a controlled movement and carefully sets the weights aside.

Smoothly, she moved into a series of stretches designed to loosen up her back and shoulders. When she deemed herself sufficiently stretched, she shook out her arms and summoned her scroll.

**Tomato:** Are you awake?

Willow smirked. Crossing the room, she snagged a towel from where it was draped over her desk chair. She removed her glasses and mopped at her brow before drying the sweat from her hairline. Then she hesitated, pondering whether or not to risk waking her fathers by having a shower. Her thoughts were interrupted by another soft ding.

**Tomato:** Willow, I know you’ve seen my message.

Willow sighed and rolled her eyes. She pulled out her chair and sat at her desk, casting her eyes over the array of plants and soft toys lined up along the wall. The room was overflowing with greenery, but to Willow’s practiced eye there was definitely room for more.

**Willow:** What are you doing up so late?

**Tomato:** I could ask you the same thing.

**Willow:** Yeah, but you messaged me.

**Tomato:** …

Willow rolled her eyes as the dots indicating Amity was typing disappeared and then reappeared moments later. After the third time it happened, she sighed and sent a terse message.

**Willow:** This is about Luz, isn’t it?

**Willow:** Are you finally going to tell her how you feel?

**Tomato:** Willow!

**Tomato:** I’m ignoring that.

Willow rolled her eyes again and impatiently willed her friend to get to the point.

**Tomato:** But, yes, it’s about Luz. I’m really worried about her.

Willow hesitated for a moment and then sighed.

**Willow:** Me too.

**Tomato:** I was thinking maybe we should go over again tomorrow. Keep her company.

**Willow:** You know you’re allowed to do that without me, right?

**Willow:** I know how much you two enjoy your alone time ;-)

**Tomato:** Shut up!

**Tomato:** ...wait? Did she tell you that?

Willow let out a bark of laughter and then froze. Sneaking to her bedroom door, she cracked it open and peered down the hallway. No lights came on. She let out a sigh of relief. It’s not that she would be in trouble exactly, but she knew how much it upset her dads when she slept poorly and she really didn’t want to worry them. The last time they caught her awake this late, they had insisted on staying up with her and her Papa had been so tired the next day that he had walked into a wall.

**Willow:** Nooo… but anyone can see you enjoy each other’s company.

**Willow:** And nothing makes Luz more excited than book club day.

Willow grinned and looked out her window, wondering if she would be able to make out the glow from Amity’s face over at Blight manor.

**Willow:** I can feel you blushing :P

**Tomato:** I am not.

**Willow:** But hark, what light from yonder window breaks?

**Willow:** It is the east and your face is on fire.

**Tomato:** ...did you seriously just quote Gromeo and Ghouliette just to burn me?

**Willow:** I regret nothing.

**Tomato:** Anyway…

**Tomato:** Shall we all go over tomorrow or not?

Willow cracked her neck from side to side, thinking about it. On the one hand, Luz had seemed pretty upset during their game earlier and could probably use some company. On the other, a part of her really wanted to push Amity into going it alone. She sighed, if she didn’t go Amity would probably just talk herself out of it and what Luz needed right now, even more than a fluffy romantic side plot, was her friends.

**Willow:** Okay. I’m in. Want me to tell Gus?

**Tomato:** Please.

**Tomato:** What time do you think?

**Willow:** Let’s go over in the morning. We can meet you at the Owl House at 10.

**Tomato:** Okay. See you then.

**Tomato:** And Willow?

**Tomato:** Thanks.

**Willow:** I love her too, ya know.

Willow glanced out the window again, half expecting to hear an exclamation of frustration from the other witch all the way across town. Instead, she simply received a very pointed lack of response.

Humming softly to herself, she opened up a new message to Gus.

**Willow:** We’re going over to cheer Luz up again tomorrow. Meet me at mine just before 10.

She was about to banish her scroll when it dinged unexpectedly.

**AsparaGus:** WHY ARE U AWAK RN? GO2 SLEEP.

It was quickly followed by a second ding.

**AsparaGus:** But ok. C u then.

~ ~ ~

Morning found Willow bleary-eyed and groggy.

She had managed to sleep, eventually, but she definitely could have used more time before her alarm woke her.

Reminding herself that this was for Luz and banishing the thought of how funny it would be if Amity turned up alone, Willow forced herself out of bed and stumbled into the shower. As she dressed after her shower, she could hear one of her dads puttering around in the kitchen and crossed her fingers that it was Dad rather than Papa.

She snuck down the hallway and peered into the kitchen. She was without luck today. Her Papa was humming loudly to himself as he danced around the kitchen. For rather a large man, he was very light on his feet.

He was also, quite simply, atrocious at cooking.

“Good morning, Petal!” He cried cheerfully as she attempted to reverse away from her impending doom. “I made you breakfast.”

He gestured to a plate on the table. Smoke wafted above the burnt and congealing mass of … whatever that was.

“You know what, Papa, I’m really not that hungry.” Willow began.

“Nonsense!” He cried, putting a hand on her shoulder and steering her into the chair. “A growing girl needs her breakfast!”

Pouring himself a mug of steaming appleblood, he took the seat opposite her and watched her expectantly.

Willow picked up her fork reluctantly. “Where’s Dad?” She asked.

“Oh, he had to open the store early this morning.” He beamed at her over his mug. “Well, what are you waiting for? Eat up before it gets cold.”

Willow experimentally poked the plate of food with her fork. It was rock solid. She opened her mouth to attempt another excuse without hurting her father’s feelings but was saved by a loud shriek.

“I’ll get it!” Willow said, bolting out of her chair, but her Papa waved her back down.

“No, no, you finish your breakfast.”

Willow waited until he left the room before dashing across the kitchen. She quickly scooped the burnt matter off her plate and into a potted Thornberry bush. Willow winced as the leaves turned yellow and the plant immediately began dropping and muttered an apology before racing across the room and back into her seat.

Just in time.

“Look who I found!” Her Papa boomed.

“Hey Willow!” Gus chirped, waving a hand at her. “You ready to go?”

“Yep,” Willow smiled. “Thanks for breakfast, Papa. It was delicious.” She stood on tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek and smiled when he gave her a quick hug.

“Have fun, you two!” He called after their hastily retreating backs.

“First things, first.” Willow said once outside. “We need to stop at the marketplace. I’m starving.”

Willow was happily munching on a tentacle pie when they rounded the final bend before the Owl House. Gus had bounced alongside her on the walk, chattering happily as he imagined what kinds of human games they might play today.

“Look, there’s Amity.” He cried, speeding up to join her in front of Hooty.

Willow’s arm shot out without really thinking about it and she caught a handful of the back of Gus’ shirt, reining him in. “Slow down! Give it a minute.”

Gus turned a questioning look on her, but she just shook her head and returned her attention to the witch who was now pacing back and forth in front of the Owl House. Willow bit back a chuckle when Hooty elongated his neck to come out of the door and wobble alongside Amity’s anxious gait. He kept looping over himself so that his neck was growing longer and longer.

Suddenly, Amity noticed he was there and turned on him with a furious shout that Gus and Willow could hear even at this distance. Willow had never seen Hooty retract into his door so quickly after that.

The door banged open, slamming the sulking house demon against the wall and eliciting a loud squawk of pain.

Willow continued holding onto Gus as they watched Luz emerge from the Owl House and fling her arms around the rapidly reddening witch.

“Now, we can go.” Willow said softly and she let go of Gus. Gus cast her a betrayed look before trotting off towards Luz and Amity and announcing loudly that Willow was being weird.

“Willow  _ is _ weird,” Amity replied, smoothing her hair down from where Luz had mussed it up.

“More friends!” Luz cried and quickly pulled Gus and Willow into a huge group hug. “What are you all doing here.”

“It was Amity’s idea,” Willow said quickly before Gus could say anything.

Amity pinked and rubbed awkwardly at the back of her neck. “I thought you might still want some company today…” She trailed off, blushing an even deeper red.

Luz stared at her for a moment, her head cocked to one side. Then she grinned. “Awwwww!” She tackled Amity in a hug and, just when Willow thought Amity couldn’t possibly get any redder, her old friend managed to surprise her. “You’re the best!” Luz murmured into Amity’s neck.

Willow snorted when she heard a squeak.

Gus bounced on his heels next to her, “What game do you want to play today?”

“Ooooooo, another game?!” Hooty cried, excited. He slunk out of his door and wound his way around Willow and Gus who flinched back from his weirdly slimy touch. “I like games! Can I play.”

“ **NO!** ” Four voices cried as one.

“OKAY! Geez, I know when I’m not wanted! HOOT!”

Luz grinned at her friends, “Come on, we can play in my room. Hooty’s not allowed in there since,” she shuddered and frowned sternly at the bird-thing, “The Incident.”

Gus opened his mouth, but shut it as Eda breezed past him, saying, “Believe me, kid. You  _ really _ don’t wanna know.”

“You off?” Luz asked her.

“Yep, Mama’s gotta go earn the big bucks! And if Lilith asks, it’s completely and totally legal.”

“That’s an odd thing to say.” Luz comments to no one.

“C’mon, King! The sooner we get going, the sooner we can start sca- I mean, the sooner we can start selling shit.”

King emerged from the Owl House grumbling tiredly to himself. He quickly crawled up Eda’s legs and scampered into her hair.

Luz waved goodbye before reaching out to grab amity’s hand and drag her into the house. Willow caught one look at her old friend’s panicked face and coughed loudly in an attempt to hide her laughter. Gus gave her an odd look and followed them into the house.

“So what game  _ were _ you thinking, Luz?”

Luz turned to him and, still clutching Amity’s hand in one of her own, flung both arms out wide, gesturing emphatically. “I have the perfect game.”

“It’s called  _ Jungle Speed. _ ”

Willow smiled. This sounded like her kind of game.

~ ~ ~

It was not Willow’s game.

“I still don’t get why it’s called  _ Jungle _ Speed.” She said as Luz triumphantly scooped up the wooden totem yet again.

Luz had pushed aside her sleep cocoon and the four of them were sat on the wooden floor in a loose circle. Willow had stifled another snort when Amity had hesitated at the thought of sitting on the dusty ground. Luz had noticed her hesitation and had gallantly tugged the sleeping mat into place beside her. Amity’s mouth fell open slightly when Luz grinned and patted the now cushioned spot, indicating she should sit.

“Well, it’s called Jungle Speed because…” Luz hesitated, “Actually, I have no idea why it’s called that. But do you think you all have a grasp of the rules now.”

Gus was sitting up on his knees, flapping his hands - one, two, one, two - against his thighs and he grinned when he nodded eagerly. “Whenever one of our cards match, we have to try and grab the totem!”

“And whoever loses has to pick up the winner’s discard pile.” Willow finished.

“Exactly,” Luz beamed. “Shall we play properly then? I used to play this all the time-“ She hesitated and her smile froze in place. Willow watched curiously as Amity took a deep breath, steeling herself, before placing a gentle hand on Luz’s knee. Luz smiled softly at her and Willow felt a smile grow on her own face as she watched her two friends.

Luz continued, “Mami and I would play this whenever my Tio would visit.” She smiled sadly, “It would get quite rough sometimes.”

Amity squeezed her knee. “We’ll find you a way back there.” She murmured.

Luz placed her hand on top of Amity’s and squeezed back. “Thank you.” She whispered, gazing into bright golden eyes.

Willow cleared her throat loudly.

Amity reddened and pulled away. “Right!” Luz said, clapping her hands together and Willow could have sworn there was a hint of red tinting the  _ human’s _ cheeks as well. “I’ll start.”

Luz flipped over her card and the game began.

~ ~ ~

“Ha!” Willow finally wrestled the totem out of Gus’ grip, nearly braining Amity with it. Gus pouted for a moment before scooping up Willow’s cards and adding them to his now rather mountainous pile.

Luz smiled brightly at her friends, “How about we pause for lunch? Lilith’s probably awake by now and she’s surprisingly good in the kitchen, I bet she’ll make us something if we ask nicely!”

Amity arched an eyebrow at her friend, “She’s  _ probably _ up?” She glanced out the window at the sun, now high in the sky.

Luz giggled, “Yeah, it turns out she’s even worse than Eda for sleeping in. Come on.” She lurched to her feet and held out a hand to Amity. The other witch hesitated for a second and cast a slightly nervous glance at Willow who simply smiled gently at her. Amity closed her eyes as Luz’s hand wrapped around hers and pulled her to her feet.

Willow smirked when the witch wobbled slightly, a dazed look crossing her face as she gazed wistfully at the back of Luz’s head as the human led the way downstairs. Then she sighed heavily when Gus ducked in between Luz and Amity to clatter loudly down the stairs. She shook her head,  _ I really need to sit down and tell Gus what’s what _ , she thought to herself. Then she froze on the landing,  _ Oh Titan, I hope I don’t need to tell him about the Pixies and the Griffins! _

Amity paused on the stairs and turned to look at her, “Everything alright, Willow?”

“Yeah,” She said, “Just had a terrifying thought.”

Amity frowned at her in confusion, but Willow shook her head, “Don’t worry about it.” She moved up next to her friend and elbowed her in the side, “Sooooooooo…” She grinned.

Amity blushed to the tips of her ears and sent a nervous look down the stairs after Luz, “Please don’t say anything, Willow! I-”

“Amity,” Willow placed a calming hand on Amity’s shoulder. “I would  _ never _ .”

Willow felt the tension under her fingers loosen slightly. “Thanks, Willow. I just- I can’t lose her.”

Willow frowned at her, “Why would you lose her?”

They both jumped when Luz trotted back into view, “You two get lost?” She asked with a fond smile.

They chuckled and followed her into the kitchen.

~ ~ ~

Luz was right. Lilith  _ was _ a surprisingly good cook.

They had carted their sandwiches back upstairs and were sprawled out around the different corners of the room. Gus has claimed the windowsill for himself and is kicking his dangling legs back and forth as he chews happily. Willow has pulled up the old chest Luz stored her stuff in and is using it as a stool as she watched the human and the witch across from her.

_ It’s almost like a dance. _ She muses. The pair had returned to sit cross-legged in their original seats on Luz’s sleep cocoon, their knees just grazing against one another. Willow swallows a delicious mouthful and continues observing how they seem to curve in towards each other, how one looks away as the other sneaks a glance, how their every move seems so carefully aware of the others presence.

“Do you like boys, Luz?” She blurts out into the contented silence.

Luz looks surprised and Amity looks horrified, but Luz smiles. “I like everyone.” She says simply. “I’m bi.”

The room stares blankly at her. “Bi?” Gus asks, leaning forward. “Is that a human thing?”

Luz frowns at her sandwich a little, “Oh, do you not have that here? It’s short for bisexual. It means like boys  _ and _ girls.” She pauses, “And other genders too.”

“Do you have lots of words like that? Are they meaningful to humans?”

She scratches her neck, “I mean, there’s heaps of words like that and they’re pretty meaningful to a lot of people. Some humans really don’t like it when people of the same gender fall in love and they can get quite… aggressive about it and so we kind of celebrate when it happens, I guess, as a way of saying ‘up yours’ to those awful people.”

“People are aggressive about it?” Willow asks, forgetting her original question in her horror.

Luz looks down and sadness flickers across her face, “Yeah. I was pretty lucky though. Mami always defended me.” Luz clasps her hands in her lap and is surprised when a droplet of water falls to softly land on her palm. A slender hand covers her clasped fingers and she blinks watery eyes before looking at Amity and smiling. “I’m alright.” She says softly.

The four of them sit in the silence for a long moment, but it is a comfortable silence.

“What would you call my dads?” Willow finally asked.

“Oh you’d probably call them gay,” Luz said, extricating one hand from the tangle with Amity and wiping her face. “But it’s really up to the individual. Gay just means men who love other men though.”

Gus had pulled a notebook from somewhere and the sound of his frantic scratching filled the air.

Amity shuffled awkwardly for a moment, drawing Luz and Willow’s attention to her. Luz looked questioningly but Willow gave her an encouraging smile.  _ Go on _ . She willed.  _ You can do it. _

“W-what’s it called when a girl only likes... other girls?” Amity finally managed.

Luz looked at her like she had just hung the moon, a large smile spreading out across her face. “That’s called a lesbian.” She hesitated and then flipped her hand under Amity’s to lace their fingers together, “Are you…?”

Amity looked down at their linked fingers in surprise. She glanced back up at Luz before her courage failed her, sending her gaze skittering around the room. “Yeah.” She said softly.

Luz squeezed her hand.

Willow averted her eyes and tried very hard not to squeal.

“What are some other words, Luz?” Gus asked innocently and Luz jumped. She jerked her fingers away from Amity and this time Willow was certain of it, she  _ was _ blushing.

“Oh, well there’s lots of them and I don’t really know all of the meanings, but I guess another more common was is asexual. That’s someone who isn’t really attracted to anyone else.”

_ Oh. _ Willow blinked as something clicked within her.

“Right!” Willow jumped as Luz clapped her hands together again, before brushing off some errant crumbs. “Who’s up for another round? Winner takes all!”

“Takes all what?”

“T-takes… um, the glory!” Luz flung a fist into the air and Amity hid a fond chuckle behind a hand, but her eyes danced as she watched the human set up the next round.

Willow and Gus scooted down from their perches to join the other witches on the floor and play began.

After a few fast and furious rounds, Luz and Amity had gained the clear lead and were watching each other very carefully.  _ Well, closer than usual. _ Willow amended in her head. Amity flipped her card over and lunged across the floor for the totem, but Luz had spotted the matching cards and she dove too.

The two witches skidded across the small circle to bump against Gus and Willow, not that they noticed.

Willow watched, fascinated as she watched a series of emotions flicker across her friends’ faces. On Amity’s there was fierce competitiveness, then a sudden ‘oh shit, our hands are touching again’, then back to ‘well, a Blight never loses’ before softening into something far gentler than Willow had ever seen on Amity’s face before.

She let go.

At the exact same moment that a soft look flashed across Luz’s face and  _ she _ let go. The four witches froze as the wooden totem flew out of the - thankfully open - window.

There was a loud thump.

“HOOT. I wasn’t spying on you! Geez!”

Amity growled and started climbing to her feet, but Luz shot out a hand to wrap around her wrist. She tugged gently and Amity slipped back to the floor, half-landing in Luz’s lap with a oof.

Willow clapped her hands together,  _ I have been spending way too much time with Luz,  _ she thought as she clearly announced, “WELL, I really need to get going now, I promised my Papa I’d help him with... “ Her eyes darted around the room, “cleaning.”

She stood up quickly and grabbed Gus’ wrist, “Come on, Gus. You can help me.”

“But I-”

“Dad’s baking later,” She promised, not knowing for a second if it was true or not.

“Oh, okay,” Gus acquiesced. “Bye, Luz, Amity.” He murmured with a confused wave.

Luz stared owlishly after them while Amity just blinked from her new spot in Luz’s lap. “Uh, okay guys. I’ll see you later then, I guess?”

“Yeah,” Willow called over her shoulder, “Maybe we can do something tomorrow!”

_ C’mon Amity, you useless lesbian, you’ve got this. _

~ ~ ~

**Willow:** Soooooo… how’d it go?

**Tomato:** Ummm…

Willow waited. The ellipses indicating Amity was typing flashed on and off a few times. Finally, they flickered off and stayed that way.

**Willow:** I had so much faith in you!

**Tomato:** I panicked!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, we've been enjoying all of your comments!
> 
> Some people were asking what Luz is under in Willow's scroll. She's under Basil and Amity hates it with a passion.
> 
> Willow told her it's because Tomato and Basil just go so well together.


	3. Chapter 3

“Good Friday afternoon, my fellow Hexolios!” Luz greeted loudly as she plopped her lunch tray down and hopped onto the bench next to Amity at their table in the cafeteria. The witch jumped but smiled shyly at the human as she situated herself in the spot next to her, missing the way Willow turned her eyes skyward at the pair. She’d had such high hopes last weekend what with the way the two of them had been acting. She was going to go gray before either of her dads at this point, watching them tip-toe around each other. Thankfully, she had at least finally found the time to sit Gus down and explain to him exactly what was going on. 

“Hey, Luz, how were your construction track classes?” The plant witch asked, spooning another mouthful of troll stew into her mouth. 

“Great! I finally figured out a glyph for making walls, watch!” She pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket.

“NO!” All three witches at the table jumped in before she could slam the paper onto the table. 

“Maybe show us later, not in the middle of the cafeteria…” Willow gave her a very stern look, making the other girl chuckle sheepishly and slip the paper carefully back into her pocket.

“Ahhh, right…” She nodded, picking up her fork and digging into her lunch instead of leveling half the cafeteria in an explosion of ‘constructive’ magic

Amity rolled her eyes fondly at the girl. For as skittish and nervous as Luz’s close proximity often made her feel, it was certainly easier when she didn’t have those large brown eyes turned directly on her, though the nearness of her still caused twinges of lightning to jolt across her skin, especially anytime they happened to brush. Which seemed to happen much more often than it used to. Despite Luz’s touchy-feelyness with most people, it almost seemed like the last week had seen an increase in the number of times she had come into contact with Luz.

She would run up behind her in the hall between classes and wrap her arms around her neck, scaring Amity half to death half of the time and the other half leaving her practically comatose from the sudden, overwhelming affection blazing up her spine like fire and lighting her face like the sun at twilight.

Anytime they walked somewhere together, even if it was just down the hall, Luz would not hesitate to grab hold of her hand, lacing their fingers together and gently dragging Amity to their destination. That alone was enough to send her into an internal conniption. She became far too aware of how much larger the other girl’s hands were than hers. Long, soft fingers wrapped delicately around hers, emanating that comforting warmth that Luz seemed to exude from every pore in her body. As much as the touch set her nerves alight, it also drew her in like a moth to a flame but Amity couldn't bear to break off any contact she had, afraid of when the next would come. The apparent increase had begun on Monday when Luz had come barreling toward the school, running full throttle and throwing herself at the green haired witch with gusto and it had only seemed to escalate from there.

She was sure she wasn’t imagining it. Even now, Luz was sitting much closer to her than she used to, their legs brushing against each other under the table as she ate her lunch, totally oblivious to the flustered state Amity went into every time she moved. 

She stared down at her tray, concentrating much too hard on the frutterburger sitting in front of her and trying not to jump every time Luz bumped against her as she chatted excitedly with Gus, sitting next to Willow across the table from them. She could feel Willow watching her knowingly. She pointedly ignored the look. She already knew she had failed last Saturday, she didn’t need another reminder.

After their friends had left, she and Luz had somehow ended up on her sleeping bag, sitting cross-legged next to each other and talking. It was a little rough for her at first, having Luz’s attention solely on her, but Luz was as excitable as always and her attention flitted about from one thing to another. It wasn’t long until they wound up with the fifth Azura book spread out between them and were marking out passages that best proved or alluded to their personal theories for the next book and the rest of the plot.

She had become so absorbed in the conversation that she hadn’t noticed the ever-shrinking distance between them til’ she felt a warm waft of breath on her cheek and looked up to find Luz pressed in close enough she could feel the body heat radiating off her, warming her own skin as she leaned in and ran her finger along a line of dialogue and reciting it. Amity had been totally deaf to every word, unable to hear anything but her own heartbeat thundering in her ears, loud enough that surely even Luz could hear it. If she did, she gave no indication as she turned to look at Amity questioningly. 

The witch could count every eyelash on Luz’s face and see the barest hint of the little dark spots that were sprinkled across the space below her eyes and across the bridge of her nose that she had never noticed before now as she stared, stupefied at her. She was so enraptured with Luz’s face, a hair’s breadth from her own that she didn’t notice for a moment that Luz was looking at her until she blinked and called her name, warm breath fanning out across her face. Amity jerked back, tumbling backwards with a small shriek.

Before Luz could even ask if she was okay, she’d jumped up, face red-hot as lava and she had quickly spat out an excuse about remembering that she had chores to do before her parents got home from work and had all but sprinted out of the room and down the stairs, ignoring Hooty as she fled out the door and down the path leading away from the Owl House.

The minute she got home she had run into her room and thrown herself on her bed, burying her face and screaming into her pillow.

Why was this so hard?! Why couldn’t she just talk and behave like a normal witch and tell Luz how she felt!?

She knew, knew that Luz would never eject her from her life if she knew about her less than strictly platonic feelings for her, especially after she herself had admitted that she was interested in girls too, but it was still hard. 

She was afraid.

Afraid of the possible rejection. Her deepest fear, the one Grometheous had preyed upon during Grom, was still alive and well in her heart. It wasn’t the rejection itself Amity feared, but what it meant. If she never told Luz what she felt for her, then she couldn’t reject her and she would do anything to keep that flickering, hopeful flame alive. 

She knew very well that the plan was riddled with holes, Willow had poked quite a few of them into the theory herself. If she never came clean to Luz, then she would never know if she had a chance or not. It was possible that Luz felt the same, and a confession would only spur their relationship to a new and different stage.

Yet still, she hesitated, tethered in place by the fear of having her heart broken and their friendship never being the same again. There were few people in all the Demon Realm that Amity felt comfortable being herself around, and the potential of losing one of them was paralysing. 

“What about you, Amity?” 

Amity blinked, coming out of her thoughts, lunch still sitting untouched in front of her as she looked up to find Luz and their friends staring at her expectantly.

“Ah, sorry, what?” she asked, blinking. 

“I was thinking about playing some games again tomorrow, but Gus and Willow are busy, do you want to come over and play?” She asked. 

Amity’s golden eyes flickered to Gus and Willow, who were both grinning at her in that smug, knowing way that told her that the two of them were, in fact, not busy tomorrow and this was just another ploy forcing her and Luz to be alone together. 

“I…” she hesitated and then Luz was leaning closer, batting those big, beautiful, brown eyes at her pleadingly. 

“Please?” She begged, her lip jutting out. Amity groaned internally at the look which could reduce a manticore to a simpering ball of fur. She ignored their friends’ expressions. Obviously, at some point, Gus had clued in, though it was far more likely that Willow had finally taken pity on the boy and told him what was going on because the younger witch looked just as giddy as Willow. She grunted to herself.

“Sure, Luz,” she finally acquiesced. 

“Yes!” Luz leaned back and pumped a fist. “I have the perfect game the two of us can play.” She grinned.

Before Amity could even think to question that, the bell screamed, signaling the end of lunch. 

“Oh! I need to get to my oracle lessons. I’ll see you guys later.” She raised a hand in farewell to Gus and Willow who echoed back goodbyes of their own. “...and I’ll see you tomorrow.” She turned to Amity, smiling so blindingly that all she was capable of doing was nodding. Luz hopped up and grabbed her tray before tearing off across the cafeteria among the throng of students slowly making their way to their afternoon classes. Once the human had vanished from sight, Amity whipped around to glare at her other two friends, who only grinned back at her.

“Why?!” she threw up her hands.

“You need to tell her, Amity,” was Willow’s annoyingly straightforward answer. “Watching you two dance around each other is driving everyone crazy,” the other girl said matter of factly, Gus nodding along sagely.

“You two are the only ones that know!” she hissed, but paused, looking around at the student body moving around them, watching as though someone might be listening. “Right?” She murmured, suddenly uncertain. 

“You’re not exactly subtle…,” Gus said, only for Willow to elbow him in the side. 

“Look, you’re driving us crazy, and you’re never going to know unless you try,” she said, watching Amity frown and stare down at her uneaten lunch. Amity had been so lost in thought that she had definitely missed all the little, telling glances Luz had been throwing her way the entire time she had been eating her lunch.

If one of them would just confess already! It was like watching a grudgby match and instead of actually shooting for the open goal, both teams were rooting around in the grass for the rusty smidge!

“Just think about maybe telling her tomorrow, while the two of you are alone,” Willow offered and Amity sighed.

“I’ll think about,” she conceded before standing and picking up her tray. “I need to get to class,” she quickly hurried off, dumping it in the trash before vanishing from sight. 

“Do you think she’ll do it tomorrow?” Gus asked her and she sighed. 

“It’s not a bet I would take,” she admitted as they both stood to head to class. “But we can always hope.”

~ ~ 

"So… why are we at the pier? I thought we were going to play another human board game." Amity frowned, looking at her curiously as she followed along beside Luz as they walked down the pier. She was trying very hard not to think about the way Luz's fingers were entwined with hers as she happily led them down the boardwalk. 

The day was warm and sunny for early fall, though it was autumn only in the barest sense that summer was technically over. The day was still plenty warm and bright.

In many ways, the day reminded Amity of Luz, as sappy as the thought made her feel. 

The businesses that lined the pier were busy with the normal Saturday traffic of people coming and going, browsing the varied wares that sat on the counters of every stand. They ignored them all, weaving through the crowd without pause.

"We are." Luz bobbed her head in agreement as they hurried along, shoes thumping on the worn, warped wood beneath their feet. She held an old cardboard box beneath her arm as they moved further down the pier to the place where it jutted out over the water. Several tables were scattered across the area for people to sit and enjoy the beautiful day and Luz quickly led them over to one and set the box on the table.

“So… the pier?” She asked, moving to sit down in one of the two chairs, but before she could, Luz hurried over and pulled it out for her. She flushed at the strangely gallant gesture, sitting down as Luz moved around the table to get herself situated in the other and shrugged, curiously not looking Amity in the eye as her gaze flickered to the rolling waves beyond the end of the dock.

“I just thought it would be a nice change of pace is all…,” she trailed off.

Amity couldn’t be sure, but it looked like there was a dusting of color on Luz’s cheeks, but in the bright glaring sunlight, it was hard to tell. 

“Also, Lilith and Eda were fighting this morning and that could go on all day…” she made a face.

“Ah, yeah…” Amity didn't want to get caught up in a third Clawthorne fight. 

“This also sets the scene for the game I picked!” Luz grinned, turning the box around to face Amity. 

“Battleships?” She asked, reading the large letters emblazoned across the cover of the game.

“Yup!” Luz smiled as she pulled off the lid and pulled out two gray squares and handed one to Amity. It rattled in her hand as she took it and watched Luz sit hers on the table in front of her and pop it open. Amity hummed and did the same only to be met with two identical-looking boards full of little circular holes on a background of blue. Across the top was a row of numbers ranging from one through ten and down the left-hand side a row of letters from A to J. At the bottom were three little cups, one had tiny plastic ships and the other two held little cylindrical things, some red and some white. 

“Okay, so the point of this game is to sink each other’s battleships…” Luz got up and walked around the table to lean over Amity’s shoulder. She stiffened at the sudden closeness. Luz’s hand was on the back of her chair, holding herself up as she pointed at the little plastic pieces inside the game and explained the rules and what all the little pegs were for. Amity forced herself to pay attention, blocking out the distraction of Luz, close enough that she could smell her naturally grassy scent, tinged with whatever floral scented soap she must have used recently.

‘Focus, Amity!’ She scolded herself and focussed on the sound of Luz’s soft voice in her ear, but all that did was make a shiver run up her spine. She groaned internally. Why was it that everything this girl did caused such a visceral reaction in her?

She managed to pick up most of the rules and what she didn’t understand, she would flub. Luz was always more than happy to explain things, hopefully from the other side of the table this time.

“You got it?” Luz turned to her with a smile and Amity forced herself to nod, though it was jerky at best. “Great!” Luz hurried back around the table and plopped back down in her chair before she started placing her little ships on the board, tongue poking out of her mouth in concentration.

‘Cute.’ Amity couldn’t help but think as she peeked at Luz over the top of the gameboard. She was probably staring much too hard because the next thing she knew, those brown eyes flickered up to look at her and they locked eyes for a moment. Luz smiled at her and Amity felt her insides seize, because this time she was sure, there was a pale rosy flush painted across Luz’s cheeks and Amity felt her face turning red in response. She jerked her head back down to look at her board and focused on picking up her little plastic ships. 

She bit her lip as she focussed on the task at hand. She pressed the longest ship onto the board and it popped into place with a satisfying click, but she was still more than aware of Luz's eyes on her and she hurried to press the others into place without thought. She could practically feel Luz's gaze. Soon, she had them all lined up in a neat little row, save for the little two-holed ship that wouldn’t fit. She stuck it just beneath the others and once she was satisfied she looked up to find Luz looking at her with a strangely soft expression that made her insides squirm. She cleared her throat and Luz seemed to snap out of whatever thoughts she had been having and her eyes focussed on Amity.

“You ready?” She asked and Amity nodded. “Okay! I’ll go first!” She looked at her board thoughtfully, tongue poking out between her lips once more, making Amity snort quietly to herself. “C-6?” She asked and Amity glanced at the chart.

“Miss.” She smirked and Luz made a grumbling sound in her throat as they both stuck a white peg on their boards. 

Amity glanced at her board thoughtfully, but she couldn’t even begin to guess, not with Luz anyway.

“G-5?” She tilted her head and knew the answer already by the way Luz was smirking at her. 

“Miss.” She said smugly and Amity rolled her eyes at the other girl.

They continued on in this way for a couple of minutes before Luz called out “A-4” and Amity frowned, picking up a red peg and placing it in the hull of one of her ships.

“Hit,” she huffed and Liz whooped, throwing up a first.

“Yes!” She grinned and Amity grumbled good-naturedly and made another guess of her own, which missed. Luz looked thoughtfully at her board. “A-5,” she said and Amity frowned as another red peg was inserted into her ship. 

“Hit.”

Luz’s grin turned wicked.

A few turns later and her largest ship had been sunk while Amity had yet to make contact with even one of Luz’s. She frowned down at her board spotted with little white pegs and bit her bottom lip as she scanned the board. Where in the Boiling Isles had Luz put those damn boats?! 

She pursed her lips and glanced up at Luz over the top of her board. The other witch was grinning smugly at her, waiting for Amity’s next move. She grumbled to herself.

“C-9?” She asked and Luz’s smug look stayed firmly in place.

“Miss,” she practically sang and Amity resisted the urge to curse as frustration started to boil in her gut.

Before Luz could call out her next number, no doubt about to sink her next ship, her eyes flickered to something over Amity’s shoulder and surprise colored her face. Before Amity could think to ask what was wrong a pair of hands clapped down on her shoulders, making her jump.

“What a coincidence, running into you two here!”

“What brings the two of you out here, all alone, on this fine day?” 

Amity groaned aloud this time before turning to look and was not surprised in the least to find her siblings standing behind her, grinning in that infuriatingly wicked way they had.

“Hey guys,” Luz greeted the Blight twins with a bright smile. They grinned back and gave a little wave.

“What are you two doing here?” Amity all but bit out at the pair, who merely smirked down at her.

“We were just passing by, enjoying this beautiful day, and happened to see our favorite love birds sitting here.” Emira leaned down to press her cheek against Amity’s. Her cheeks turned blood red. 

“It would have been rude of us to not stop by and say hello,” Edric said, pressing against the other side of her face and squishing her cheeks between them as she scowled, face turning crimson.

Luz bit her lip, trying not to snicker, but Amity was quick to catch the look and growled loudly, shoving the two grinning twins away.

“Can’t you see Luz and I are in the middle of something?” She hissed angrily, but the two seemed very unbothered by her rage.

“What are you doing?” Emira cocked her head as she leaned down to inspect Amity’s game board. Edric walked over to look at Luz’s.

“It’s a human board game!” Luz brightened and quickly explained the rules to the twins, who seemed intrigued by the idea.

“You’re losing,” her brother said helpfully after looking at all the red pegs in Amity’s ships. She growled at him under her breath, making him grin.

“Mind if we stay and watch for a bit?” Emira asked and Edric nodded eagerly. Amity cringed at the question. Knowing Luz, she would readily agree to let her annoying sibling’s stay, but when she looked over at the human, the hesitance was readily apparent on her face and Amity blinked, brows furrowed. Luz was always eager to invite anyone who wanted to be included, so to see her obviously on the fence about it was new. 

"Well, Amity and I..." she began, her eyes flickering between the twins before landing on Amity. 

It hit her like a runaway Griffin in that moment that Luz also didn't want the twins to stay, probably for the same reason that Amity didn't. Luz was incredibly kind though, and she knew that saying no to anyone being included in things was hard for her, she wanted to be nice. 

Stony resolve filled her and she opened her mouth to tell her siblings that they could not, in fact, stay when her brother beat her to it.

"Of course they don't mind, right Luz?" Edric turned to the human, who floundered under his sudden stare.

Amity sighed to herself, resigned. There would be no getting rid of them now and she didn't want to make Luz the bad guy here.

"Fine," she hissed between clenched teeth.

"See?" Edric grinned, turning to his twin.

Amity caught Luz's eyes and gave a helpless shrug, mouthing the words 'I’m sorry'. Instead of seeming annoyed, Luz just smiled tenderly at her, and Amity's stomach twisted itself up into a tight knot. 

"Well, don't mind us. Keep playing." Emira made a little waving motion with her hand and Amity grunted.

"It was your turn, Luz," she reminded her and the human nodded, turning her attention back to her game. 

"A-10," she called and Amity tried not to dwell too deeply on it as she put yet another red peg in the final hole of her second sunk ship.

"Hit,” she grumbled.

"Now you're really losing," Edric pointed out and Emira chuckled. Amity clenched her fists beneath the table.

It only took three turns before she was ready to kill her siblings. Every time she missed and Luz poked another hole in her fleet, they made little barbed comments.

"Maybe you should have been an oracle student, Mittens. Then you might be able to find Luz's ships." Her sister's voice came from her left. 

Another round and another ship struck dead on before her own shot, again, fell uselessly into open water, followed by another direct hit from Luz.

"Remind me to never take you sailing," Edric snorted as another ship was sunk.

Amity hunched further and further over in her seat, shoulders pressed nearly to her ears as her brother and sister continued to heckle and wheedle at her. She was glaring at her board at this point, jaw clenched and teeth grit.

She had become so hyper-focused on the game and her sibling's needling comments that she totally missed the concerned looks Luz was giving her from across the table, lips pulled down into a frown as she watched her.

Amity called out her next shot. A certain snap in her voice that Luz had definitely heard before, and she knew that Amity was on the edge.

This was not at all what she had hoped today would be like. They were supposed to spend the day just having fun together, in each other's company.

Like a…

She glanced down at her board and, again, it was a miss, but…

“Hit," Luz finally said and Amity blinked at her, surprised before sitting up a little straighter, shoulders pulling away from her ears slightly.

"Really?" She asked, and that excited lilt to her voice made Luz's stomach flip. She nodded, smiling as she picked up a red peg to stick in one of her ships.

"Wait a second, Luz, that's not the right number." Edric pointed out, oh so helpfully, which caused Emira to lean over as well.

"Yup, he's right, you missed, Mittens." She nodded and Luz watched helplessly as her face twisted up.

Luz twisted her fingers into the hem of her shorts. She could miss on purpose and eventually, Amity would hit her ships, but that would take too long and the youngest Blight looked ready to explode, it might be best to just end this quickly.

"I believe that makes it your turn, Luz," Edric turned his attention back to her and Luz internally sighed. They would stay at the Owl House next time. Eda and Lilith yelling at each other would probably be better than this.

She called out her next number and Amity's face twisted up even further making the twins grin. They looked at each other before they spun their fingers and, in a plume of blue smoke, an illusion popped into the air of a ship catching fire and slowly sinking beneath the waves.

"Like the Titan-ick, it's done for," Emira declared.

"Sunk," Edric snicked. 

Amity sat there, red-faced and staring hard down at the board, ears pulled flat against the sides of her head and breathing hard. Luz frowned.

"Amity…," she started but then Amity jumped up, her chair clattering to the ground behind her. Edric and Emira jumped out of the way.

"I'll show you sunk!" She snapped angrily and turned toward the water spinning her finger in a large circle, a magenta ring blazing to life.

At first, it seemed like nothing had happened, but then the dock began to tremble beneath them, rattling the tables and the game boards. The water churned and bubbled just beyond the edge of the pier, making them all turn to look. Before anyone knew what had happened, the air was filled with the cacophonous sounds of rushing water. 

A large, writhing creature burst from the waves in an explosive splash.

It was a mass of smooth, sucker covered tentacles that whipped through the air, smashing against the sand and smacking the water, causing rippling waves to batter against the sandy shore and rock the pier The beach was suddenly filled with screaming and yelling as people took off running in all directions.

"Kraken!" Someone shouted and Luz just stood there, staring up with wide eyes as it loomed over the pier, casting long wriggling shadows across her face.

"Whoa…," she mumbled.

Scowling, Amity spun her finger again and the creature’s eyes, at least, what Luz assumed were eyes, glowed a fiery magenta and let out a piercing shriek that shook the air and made her cringe.

A tentacle whipped out of the water towards them and she jumped out of her chair, diving out of the way just as the large, dripping appendage swept across the pier, wood snapping and cracking as it plowed through the railing, sending splinters of wood flying through the air. The sucker covered arm wrapped around the game boards and dragged them off the table and back into the watery depths. A loud popping and cracking filled the air as it crushed the plastic pieces in its grip before finally, it sank back down, vanishing beneath the waves as quickly as it had come in a wash of bubbles and seafoam. 

Everything was perfectly quiet for a moment.

"Now they're sunk!" Amity snapped, whipping around to glare at her brother and sister, who blinked at her owlishly before glancing at something behind her. She turned to see Luz, standing on the end of the dock among the broken and splintered wood scattered across the pier and staring wide-eyed at the ocean.

Immediately, Amity felt guilty. 

She'd lost her temper and, not only had she ruined their day - though she could partially blame her siblings for that, she had also destroyed Luz's game. A human board game that would be impossible to replace.

She grimaced and any remaining dregs of anger sizzled out, doused by guilt like water on embers. She hesitated a moment before walking over to Luz, still watching the now calm and silent waves with silent awe.

"Luz…," she started quietly.

"You sank my battleship…," was all the human could manage to mumble, still watching the place the sea monster had vanished.

"Luz, I am so sorry, I shouldn't have done that…I destroyed your game, and... there's no excuse for it. I'm sorry," her voice trembled and that seemed to snap Luz out of her stupor as she jerked around to face the other witch. Her hands were clasped in front of her and her eyes were fixed on the ground by her feet.

"No! No, it's okay, Amity, really! It was just a board game." She took a step forward, prompting Amity to look back up at her.

"But… you can't replace it," she mumbled and Luz hummed an affirmative.

"No, I can't, but I didn't like that game that much anyway. There just weren't very many games in the box that were for two people, so I just figured we could play that one." She shrugged, but Amity still didn't look convinced.

Luz reached out and took her hand, fingers lacing gently with hers. 

"It's okay, really," she assured, gently squeezing her hand. A pleasantly warm sensation shot through the green-haired witch's body at the soothing words and touch. She could feel how hot her face was, but it was hard to be embarrassed about it when Luz was looking at her with such aching sweetness. 

"Okay…" she managed to mumble, nodding. 

"Wow, Mittens. I always knew you were a sore loser, but that was a whole new level." Her sister's voice popped the tender moment like a needle to a balloon. She scowled, whipping around and raising a finger.

The twins turned and took off running, snickering to themselves. Amity released an aggravated breath as they vanished down the boardwalk, shouting over their shoulders. 

“See you at home!”

Amity grunted, she would deal with them later at home. 

"Well… I guess we're done playing that game." Luz's voice drew her attention back to the human witch. 

"Yeah…" Amity mumbled, but Luz only smiled at her.

"We're still down here though, do you want to get lunch?" She asked, hooking her thumb over toward the various shops and food stands that lined the boardwalk.

"Oh… yeah," she nodded, and then Luz was gently tugging her down the walk by their laced fingers.

Amity couldn't help the smile that pulled so hard at her lips they hurt, but she couldn't stop it. 

"That was really cool though. I didn’t know you could do beast keeping magic!" Luz said excitedly as they walked quickly down the road. "Can you do that again?" She asked and Amity laughed.


	4. Chapter 4

The early autumn sun still held the lingering heat of summer as it blazed down upon the Boiling Isles. It sparkled and danced on cerulean waves, gently rippling in the cool ocean breeze. Spray kicked up from the waves lapping at the pier to caress the faces of two girls.

Amity absently-mindedly brushed the droplets of water from her face and returned her attention to the human sitting next to her and laughing. She was trying to follow Luz’s story, really she was. But she kept getting distracted by the way the afternoon sun brought a golden tint to Luz’s bronze skin, by the way the wind was playfully tousling dark strands of hair, and by the way her eyes sparkled with laughter every time their eyes met.

So, yeah. She had no idea what Luz was talking about.

“-and then Eda decided to pretend to be my abuelita because she thought the guy would be less interested in her, but it turned out that really floated his boat, so she ended up throwing some Hex Snax at him. Then she literally picked me up and we bolted!” Luz laughed and leaned back with her hands against the rough wood of the boardwalk. She kicked her legs idly in the air as she chuckled and Amity smiled softly as she watched her. She thought about kicking her legs too.

She thought about playfully stroking her foot across Luz’s-

“Amity?”

“What?” She blurted out, a fiery blush blooming across her cheeks.

Luz knocked a gentle knuckle against her head like a door, “You still there, Blight?” She asked with a teasing tone.

“Oh, sorry, yes. I-” She blushed again and cursed her fair skin, “I, er, got distracted.”

Luz held her gaze so fiercely, so meaningfully, that Amity felt that blush travel to the tips of her ears and down to flush her neck and collar. She pulled her gaze from Luz and out to sea, but could still feel the human’s hot eyes upon her and their, entirely too knowing, stare.

“Stop it,” she murmured quietly.

“What?”

“Looking at me like that.” Amity kept her voice light, but she could feel the blush travelling further. She was sure that if Luz didn’t stop looking at her like that soon, then even her toes would be blushing.

Luz chuckled, and it was low in her throat. Amity thought she had heard every version of Luz’s laugh, but apparently this was a new one. She liked it. She liked it _a lot_ . It sent a tingle running down her spine as Luz continued in a low voice, “Looking at you like _what_?”

Amity flushed even further and opted to hide her face behind her eye-scream sundae. When she risked a glance at Luz, she saw the other girl was grinning devilishly and leaning in towards her.

Amity froze, powerless to do anything.

An endless stream of static ran through her head as Luz continued to crowd into her space.

“You- you know-” she stuttered and trailed off. Golden eyes helplessly meeting deep brown ones.

Amity had long since decided that brown was her favourite colour. Move over pink, she thought, you’ve got nothing on brown.

Luz shifted her weight and moved so that her breath ghosted over Amity’s ear, sending it into a panicked daze of frantic flickering.

“I have no idea what you could possibly mean,” she whispered and then pulled back just as suddenly. But not before she swiped a lick of Amity’s eye scream.

Amity stared back at her in total shock, but Luz had returned her gaze to the ocean. She lowered her eyes to her eye-scream. Two of the eyes looked back at her, totally unconcerned. One even winked. She pondered the situation for a moment, but the chance of the- well, the indirect kiss, was far too good to miss.

She took an eager bite of the treat and swallowed an eyeball with obvious pleasure. She found herself imagining that she could taste some hint of Luz on the sweet dessert and blushed again.

Setting the treat aside, she eyed Luz’s hand nervously where it rested on the dock. She took a deep breath and, in a moment of immense courage, casually flopped her hand down next to Luz’s so that their pinkies would _juuuust_ brush against one another.

Or they would have, if Luz hadn’t chosen that exact moment to run her hand through her hair.

Swallowing down her disappointment like a bitter potion, Amity returned her eyes to the peaceful vista before them. “This was nice,” she said quietly. “You know, apart from the twins… and the kraken - I’m really sorry about that, by the way-”

Luz waved Amity’s apology away lightly, “This _is_ nice,” she agreed. She smiled shyly at Amity and Amity could swear she saw that hint of a blush on Luz’s dark cheeks again. “I enjoy spending time with you, Amity. Especially when it’s just us.”

She returned her hand to its original resting place and her pinky finger looped through Amity’s gently, sending an electric shock straight up her arm and into her chest.

Amity quickly endeavoured to pick her jaw and her dignity up from where they had fallen on the floor, and gulped. “M- me too.”

They shared a slightly embarrassed smile before looking out as one at the Boiling Sea. Silence descended on the pair and they basked in its warm and mildly awkward glow.

“I’m not ready for this to end,” Luz admitted.

“I- it doesn’t have to,” Amity said, shyly tucking a strand of green hair behind her ear. She had let it down from her usual hairstyle while they were getting food and Luz’s expression when she had done so had been more than worth the irritation of it whipping about in the cool breeze. 

Maybe, just maybe, she thought she might have a chance here. 

But what if she was wrong?

Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained, she thought. She plunged onwards, thinking of how proud Willow would be of her right now.

“We could always do something else?” She offered hesitantly.

“Oh yeah? What do you have in mind?”

~~

And that’s how Amity found herself sneaking into Bonesborough Public Library after closing hours on a Saturday afternoon. The library famously closed early on weekends to give its staff time to clean and restock the shelves and Amity could scarcely believe what they were about to do. What _she_ had suggested they do.

 _If the twins could see me now._ She thought in a frantic daze.

A firm squeeze to her hand snapped her sharply back to reality.

“You sure about this, Amity?” Luz asked, a concerned expression on her face. “We can always find something else to do.”

Amity looked at the girl next to her, all warmth and sunshine and courage, and she smiled and hardened her resolve. She squeezed Luz’s hand back. “I’m sure,” she said confidently. “I’m just glad I made the twins teach me this. I figured it might come in handy someday.”

Quickly she drew a glowing, magenta circle and a spectral pick emerged to plunge into the lock. Amity listened closely for a moment, then there was a sudden clunk and she twisted her hand. The door opened slowly.

“Wow!” Luz said loudly and Amity instinctively clapped her hand over the human’s mouth to prevent the sound from carrying as they moved into the foyer. “They didn’t know that spell the _last_ time we broke in.” Luz mumbled around her hand.

“Shhh,” Amity whispered sternly but she sighed internally when she heard a hint of fondness creep in to soften her tone.

“Sorry,” Luz mumbled once more but Amity wasn’t sure she could trust the human to behave just yet, so she hesitated to release her. Then something wet brushed against her palm.

“Ew, Luz!” She wiped the offending saliva off on Luz’s signature white and purple hoodie. “Gross,” she added once more for emphasis, but Luz just grinned at her and took the slightly damp hand in hers before firmly tugging Amity in the direction of the Romance section.

Their soft footsteps echoed quietly through the empty halls. The soft shuffles were the only sounds- Amity’s ear twitched and she abruptly yanked Luz under a table, holding one finger to her lips.

A pair of dancing and shuffling feet made their way past them mere moments later and Luz and Amity peered out to watch the demon. His robes shifted and twirled as he boogied his way down the aisle, stopping every moment or so to lovingly return a book to its home. A soft tinny sound emanated from the headphones pulled over his long tufty ears and he nodded his head in time to the beat.

As the slight squeak of his trolley and the soft tread of his dancing feet disappeared down the hall, Luz and Amity exhaled a sigh and exchanged a giddy smile of relief. Then blood flooded Amity’s face as she realised she had somehow managed to pin Luz beneath her when she pulled her to safety.

Backpedaling frantically, she all but hurled herself out from under the table and across the floor. “S-sorry!” She whispered desperately as she clambered clumsily to her feet. Luz just grinned at her, but again there was that- _I mean, was it a blush? Or maybe she was just embarrassed. It was an embarrassing situation to be in, after all._

Amity gritted her teeth and held a hand out awkwardly to pull the human to her feet. “We should probably get going,” she murmured, looking everywhere but at Luz’s shit-eating grin. Luz nodded in agreement and once more pulled Amity after her as she bounded forward into the library. And even though she was being tugged almost uncomfortably in Luz’s wake, Amity couldn’t help but smile at her back.

Soon they reached their destination and Luz hesitated, her eyes scanning the book titles, searching for something. Amity smirked and reached out, brushing past Luz to grasp a book and pull it towards them. Luz had just a moment to catch the title as the mechanism clicked and the door slid open to reveal Amity’s hideaway.

“That’s a different book?” She asked, uncertain.

Amity shrugged, “It felt like time for a change,” she said lightly.

Luz leaned into her and Amity felt her pulse spike from the other girl’s closeness. “So, what book did you choose?”

Amity looked away and muttered something under her breath.

“Amitysaidwhat?”

She blushed, _again_ , she thought sourly. “ _Girl From Another World,_ ” she mumbled.

A shy smile spread slowly across Luz’s face and she looked away from Amity, but somehow gripped her hand even tighter as she pulled her into the room and allowed the door to click shut behind them.

“So!” She announced to the room, but Amity waved a hand desperately at her and quickly cast another spell. “Er, what was that?”

“A dampening spell,” Amity explained, “Now, no one in the rest of the library will be able to hear us.”

Luz’s eyes grew wide as saucers and she clutched her hands to her chest, forgetting in her excitement that she was still holding Amity’s. Amity’s head spun as the move tugged her even further into Luz’s orbit.

“You’re so cool,” Luz breathed quietly. Amity felt the gust of air trickle over her face and decided that she could quite happily die in this moment.

She emerged from her moment of head spinning happiness to find Luz staring at her curiously and realised that the human must have asked her a question. “Sorry, I missed that.”

Luz giggled, “What do you wanna do, silly?”

“Oh. Um,” Amity hesitated, biting her lip and entirely missing the way Luz’s eyes were drawn to the action. “I hadn’t really thought that far ahead actually.”

Luz dragged her eyes away from Amity to look around the room before her expression lit up with glee. “I have an idea,” she said and Amity wasn’t entirely sure she liked the smile spreading slowly across her friend’s face.

Suddenly Luz dropped her hand and darted across the room towards the cosy pile of cushions lurking in the corner. Picking one up, she whirled and tossed it at Amity, nailing her directly in the face.

Time froze.

Luz was aware that she had just made a grave mistake. “A- Amity, I probably shouldn’t have done that… I was just- It was just-” Her stammering was interrupted when Amity snatched the pillow up from the floor and sent a glare her way that was somehow equal parts playful, and deadly.

“En garde.” The witch challenged and before Luz could re-arm herself, she found herself being battered lightly about the head. Waving her arms to fend off the attack, she dodged to the side, and dropped into a roll. As she tumbled past the pillows she scooped up two and hurled one at Amity to slow her advance.

The witch easily jumped over the projectile but it gave Luz enough time to make it to her feet and ready herself for the assault.

The two pillows clashed against each other in a surprisingly loud thump and Luz found herself grinning wildly. Her grin grew even bigger when she noticed an answering smile on Amity’s face and heard the hint of a giggle in her voice as she cried out, “Oh, you are _so_ going down, Human!”

“You’ll never take me alive, Witch!”

Amity wound back for another strike with the fluffy armament and Luz seized her chance. She winked cheekily at her friend and laughed when the witch’s movement stuttered for a second. Luz grinned and tossed her own pillow aside. Throwing caution to the wind, she tackled Amity about the waist and hurled them both backwards into the pile of cushions.

Breathless with laughter, Luz quickly pinned the hand holding the pillow and set to work running tickling, dancing fingers across Amity’s side with her right hand. The witch giggled and squirmed away from her. She wriggled to free her trapped hand and tried to bat Luz’s tickles away with the other. Luz shifted to better pin the witch beneath her… and froze. She suddenly became painfully aware of the fact that Amity was pinned beneath her, her chest heaving and flushed from exertion, her hair a tangled green halo around her face and her golden eyes sparkling up at her.

The breath caught in Luz’s throat and she choked on her own air supply.

And, in that moment, Amity flipped them. The witch grinned triumphantly as she set to tickling her friend in revenge but stopped the second she realised Luz had stopped laughing and was instead staring up at her blankly.

“Luz?” she asked, suddenly worried. “Are you ok? I didn’t- Titan, I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

Luz’s face burned and she marvelled at the fact that Amity somehow couldn’t see it as she cast her eyes frantically around the room in search of some distraction.

“No, you didn’t hurt me. I- Oh, hey, you have chess!”

She sat up abruptly and the movement made Amity slide bonelessly off of her. The witch ran a trembling hand through her frazzled hair and attempted fruitlessly to compose herself.

“I have what?”

“Chess!” Luz announced, pulling out a familiar black and white chequered board.

“No, that’s Emperor’s Gambit, Luz. It’s a Boiling Isles game.”

Luz ran her fingers over the soapstone board inlaid into a light wooden box. She popped the latches and clicked it open to reveal very familiar pieces. “It _is_ chess!” She announced with a smile. “It must be another one of those things we have in both realms.” They looked at each other.

“ **Like Azura,** ” they said as one and Luz found herself distracted by the way Amity’s smile made the room seem just that little bit brighter. Shaking her head to clear it of such romantic notions, she returned her eyes to the lovingly carved pieces and began pulling them out.

It did not take them long to realise that, while the pieces all held different names - vassals in place of pawns, marshalls instead of rooks, paladins and chancellors for knights and bishops, a vizier for a queen and, obviously, an emperor instead of a king - the game was still exactly the same. They talked for some time about the rules to make sure they were on the same page while they set the board up and it was Amity who took the white and made the opening gambit.

Luz eyed her carefully before making her own first move.

If you had asked Amity what Boiling Isles games Luz might excel at, Emperor’s Gambit would… not have been high on her list. She would have guessed that her friend was just too bouncy and, well, erratic and chaotic to be any good at the slower-paced game of strategy. Then again, Luz had done nothing but surprise the witch since their first encounter, so she’s not really sure why she’s surprised now.

She _is_ surprised though. This is a game Amity loves. A game she has studied and practiced. A game she has defeated her siblings at so often they now refuse to play with her. And Luz is matching her move for move. Not only that, but she can tell Luz is taking her time. The human who, let’s face it, is known for her ‘take action first and ask questions later’ attitude is carefully pondering each move before she makes it.

Amity finds herself watching Luz’s hands as she hovers over the board, as she makes each move. The silence in the room should feel ponderous and dull but instead it feels warm and welcoming and Amity feels a smile growing across her face as she takes her next move. Her Marshall clicks into place, threatening Luz’s Chancellor and she leans back with a satisfied smirk and absently tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.

Luz’s movements have been slow and languid until now but suddenly her hand jerks and she moves her Chancellor quickly out of danger… leaving her Vizier wide open. Amity frowns slightly at the strange move but doesn’t question it as she quickly takes the piece. She looks up at Luz, but her boast dies in her throat when she sees the other girl’s expression.

Luz is… _staring_ at her and there is no mistaking the flush spread across her face this time. Amity can feel herself growing red under the human’s warm gaze and she nervously plays with her loose hair for a moment.

A hand shoots out to catch hers in its grasp and even Luz looks surprised by her hand’s brazenness, but she gulps and brushes a thumb over Amity’s knuckles before raising her eyes to meet the witch’s. Amity feels lost under that earthen gaze, tongue heavy in her mouth, unable to form words. So she swallows her fear and turns her hand over.

And Luz’s slots into place, interlacing between her fingers.

“Luz-”

“Tengo tantas ganas de besarte ahora mismo.” She murmured without thinking.

“What?”

~~

There is a frantic pounding on the door and it is doing nothing to improve the witch’s foul mood. She is not a fan of heat, and is even less a fan of interruptions.

“Uhhhh… hi?”

“Willow!”

She is almost bowled over when Edric and Emira rudely shove past her into her hallway. Emira peeked in the first room she could find, while her brother began opening a low cupboard and peering inside.

Willow stared at them in shock, “Not to be rude, but what on Titan’s tits are you doing?”

“Hi Willow,” Emira turned to smile at the witch, “I don’t suppose you’ve seen Amity have you?”

“Um, no…?” Willow swiftly moved to Edric’s side, yanked him up by his collar and closed the cupboard, “She’s _not_ in there, Edric. Honestly, how would she even fit?”

Edric found himself wilting under the younger witch’s surprisingly fearsome gaze. He shrugged slightly, “She’s bendy.”

Even Emira shook her head at him.

“Besides, wasn’t she spending today with Luz?”

“Well, we did run into them earlier.” Emira admitted.

“But then Amity got all pissed off and _had_ to summon a kraken.” Edric continued.

“Honestly, you would think that girl would be a better loser-”

“-what with all the practice she has at it.”

Willow stared at this routine, unimpressed. “She summoned a kraken? On _Luz_?”

“Well, technically on the board game… and us.”

Willow nodded, “Yeah, that sounds about right. Why do you need her now, then?”

The twins exchanged a look and for once they looked serious. “Mom and Dad got back from their work trip early. They want all of us home for dinner and if Amity isn’t there… Well, you’ve met them.”

Willow nodded absently, “Yeah, they suck.” She suddenly met their eyes, “Er, no offence.”

“ **None taken.** ” They replied lightly in unison.

Willow sighed, “I really hate it when you do that.” She scratched her head, “Alright, where have you looked for her?”

Edric glanced at his sister, “Well, we tried the boardwalk where we saw them last-”

“-and we checked the grom tree.” Emira continued. “We thought we would ask you-

“-and then check the Owl House.” Edric concluded.

“Hmmm, she could be at Luz’s… Did you try calling her?”

The twins hesitated before exchanging a chagrined look and Willow heaved a sigh. _Honestly, how does Amity cope with these jokers?_

~~

_Dios-mio-mierda-mierda-mierda. What was I thinking?_

“What did you say, Luz?”

“Um…” _Mierda, think of something! Anything!_ “I said you’re really good at chess!”

Amity levelled her with an unimpressed look.

_Think of something else!_

Luz could feel the fire on her face as she searched her mind frantically for something else to say. But there was nothing.

 _You could tell her what you said._ One part of her reasoned. _I can’t do that!_ Another part bit back.

_Why not?_

Why, indeed?

Well, because it was scary.

Luz could feel Amity’s eyes on her, could feel her burning impatience growing as Luz continued to _not say anything_.

Yes, it’s scary. Terrifying, even. But Luz has been brave before.

 _What if I split the difference?_ She wondered.

Speaking clearly so her words could be heard even over the thundering in her chest that she was sure Amity could hear, she finally spat out, “I asked if you want to dance with me.”

“Oh!” Amity's mouth falls open in surprise and she blushes to the tips of her ears. Luz decides it is a look she likes very much on the other witch.

Swallowing her fear, she stands and holds out her hand to Amity. “Would you like to dance with me?” She forces herself to hold Amity’s eyes gently with hers and almost gasps when slender fingers slip into hers.

“I would.”

The chess pieces fall to the floor forgotten as Luz pulls Amity into her arms and holds her close. This was nothing like the last time they danced. There is no speed, no danger, no monster to be vanquished.

Instead, it was just them. Just Luz and Amity. Just warmth and safety and the bubbling feeling of hope in Luz’s chest as she smiled shyly at the pretty girl in her arms. Just elation when Amity smiled back.

Amity let loose a gentle, contented sigh and shuffled even closer to Luz. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and moved to rest her forehead against the human’s.

The room was quiet now. The only sounds were their gentle breathing and slow movements as they swayed in time to a music only they could hear.

Amity opened her eyes but didn’t move away, instead she captured Luz in bright pools of gold and whispered on a soft exhale, “That wasn’t what you said, was it?”

Luz shook her head mutely and the movement jostled Amity slightly, but she did not draw back.

“You can tell me.”

Luz shook her head again.

“Why not?

Luz tightened her grip around Amity’s waist, hugging her close as she squeezed her eyes shut. “Because it’s scary,” she murmured finally.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Luz just hugged her tighter.

“I promise.”

She took a deep breath.

And then another.

“I want to kiss you so badly right now.”

She opened her eyes, and Amity was staring at her, totally bereft of speech.

“That’s what I said,” Luz finished in a whisper.

She hesitated, but as Amity continued to stare at her and say nothing, she gently extricated herself from the witch’s arms. Luz slowly began gathering her things in silence and turned to go but a hand shot out to grab her wrist.

Luz stood there for a moment, frozen in time; just waiting for the inevitable. Waiting for Amity to let her down easy.

She wasn’t expecting Amity to move closer, to wrap her arms around Luz and hug her from behind. She wasn’t expecting the gentle, unmistakable, hesitant press of lips to the nape of her neck, sending a shiver trickling down her spine.

She wasn’t expecting Amity to turn her around and look at her with sparkling tears in her eyes and a beautiful smile on her face.

She wasn’t expecting her to say, “I would like that.”

Luz blinked away the unshed tears that had started to form at the corner of her eyes and smiled at the amazing girl in front of her.

“You would?”

“I would.”

Amity took her hand and pressed it to her cheek. She nuzzled against it for a moment before reaching out to caress Luz’s face and draw her close.

There was a fleeting brush of lips, like two ships passing in the night, then a longer press, less hesitant, more sure. They broke apart because they were both smiling too much.

Luz chuckled and wobbled slightly as her knees betrayed her.

Amity caught her before she could properly fall - because, of course she did - and steadied the human on her feet.

Luz gazed at her starstruck before a slow, dangerous grin spread across her face.

“I guess you could say I’ve fallen for you, Amity.” She let go of the witch to flash two finger guns at her, trusting entirely in the other girl to keep her upright.

Amity stared at her, amazed. “I should drop you.”

“No, don’t do that!” Luz cried, clutching her tighter. Amity shook her head but laughed at her silly human before bending to kiss her again.

They were interrupted this time by a soft chiming sound. Amity looked at Luz apologetically as she set her more firmly on her feet once more and summoned her scroll.

“Who is it?”

Amity waved a hand at her to shush and Luz was quick to capture it and press a gentle kiss against her palm. Amity’s ear fluttered as she tried to control the fizzing in her chest.

“Hi Willow, er… it’s kind of a bad time, can I call you ba-”

“The twins are here looking for you.”

In the background, Amity could hear the soft bickering of her siblings, “-do you mean, you didn't think to call her?” 

“Well, you didn’t either!”

“Well, it’s not _my_ fault.”

“Willow, I am _so_ sorry.”

Willow hesitated on the other end of the scroll for a second, “What for?”

“My idiot siblings.”

“Hey!”

“We heard that!”

Amity raised her voice slightly, “I meant you to!” She could hear Willow chuckling while Luz distracted her by playing with her fingers. She shot the human a soft look.

“What do they want?”

“Apparently your parents got back early and they need you home ASAP.”

“Or they’re totally gonna flip!” Ed called down the scroll, his voice suddenly sounding much closer.

“So hurry up and meet us at the edge of town!” Emira added. “We’ll see you there in ten!”

Amity heard some muffled squawking and imagined it was Willow pushing the twins off of her. “You catch all of that?” Willow asked, unruffled by Amity’s ruffian siblings.

“Yes, I’ll see them there.”

“So hurry up and wrap up your little date with-” Amity hung up before Emira could finish speaking and sighed.

“I have to go.”

“I heard.” Luz drew her back into her arms and pressed their foreheads together again. “In a minute.”

They just stood there, enjoying the peace of the moment and breathing the same air. Luz tilted her head forwards - a question - and Amity replied with another kiss. She smiled into it. She never knew she could smile this much, feel this light and full. She never knew she could feel this happy.

Without a word, Amity reached down to twine her hand through Luz’s and they took one more moment to breath each other in before stepping away from each other and back to reality.

They were fortunate that all of the library staff had long since left, really, because neither Luz nor Amity paid the slightest bit of attention to stealth nor subtlety as they strolled hand in hand through the library and out the main entrance. In her giddy state, Amity barely even remembered to lock the door behind them.

Luz looked down at their linked hands as they wandered slowly through town to the meeting spot. It was weird, they had held hands so many times before but it still managed to feel different somehow. _Better_. She decided. There was a newfound intimacy in the way their fingers tangled together, in the shy glances and smiles they exchanged.

Luz could feel the tension building in Amity as they approached Willow and the twins and she squeezed her hand encouragingly. Amity smiled at her gratefully before turning her worried eyes forward.

Ed and Em stepped forward, and a fresh burst of tension raced through Amity as beams burst across their faces. They threw their arms wide, “Mittens-”

Their eyes widened as vines suddenly wrapped around them from behind, clamping their mouths shut. In unison, they turned injured looks on Willow who simply smirked at them.

Amity smiled at Willow before turning to her human. “I’d better go,” she said softly, sadly. She stepped away from her, but Luz held on to her hand, not releasing it. She stepped closer to Amity, a question in her eyes.

Amity nodded.

Luz kissed her.

It was different from their first kisses. This one burned. It tingled. It seared.

Amity loved it.

She didn’t even care that she could hear the muffled squealing of her siblings behind her, didn’t care that she knew exactly how much teasing she was in for later.

How could she care when Luz’s lips were on hers?

After a long moment, they heard Willow clear her throat tactfully and drew back. Amity smiled when she saw the blush darkening Luz’s skin and didn’t need a mirror to know that her own skin was a fierce pink.

“See you tomorrow?” she asked and received an almost drunken nod.

Untangling her hand, Amity stepped back. She waved a cheerful goodbye to Willow as she grabbed each of her siblings and pulled them away, still struggling against their viney gags. She barely got ten feet away before casting one last look over her shoulder.

Luz waggled her fingers smittenly at Amity’s departing figure and Willow smirked at her goofy expression.

“So I take it you have good news, then?”

Luz looked at her and promptly crumpled to the ground in a dreamy heap. She grinned at Willow and absently flapped her hands at her sides, against her shorts. “Yeah, I-”

A faint glow emanated from Luz’s pocket and she froze as a familiar sound split the afternoon air.

Her love-struck haze evaporated immediately.

“Oh no.”

There was an immense ripping sound and Luz suddenly found herself, pantsless, astride a tall brick wall. Blushing furiously, she quickly tugged her sweater down to cover herself as best she could.

Willow stifled a laugh. “Is that a glyph in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”

“Willow!”

“I’m sorry I just didn’t think it was possible for anyone except Amity to turn that red.”

“A little help please?”

Panting slightly from the effort of holding in her guffaw, Willow nodded and promised to fetch her friend some pants. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“Where would I go, Willow? Where would I go??” Luz called after her departing friend.

She tugged at her shirt uncomfortably and shivered slightly in the cool breeze. But as she sat there, blushing atop her new wall, she caught sight of a trio of green heads in the distance and grinned to herself, warmed by the thought of tomorrow. She let out a soft squeal at the thought of spending more time with Amity, of - perhaps - more kisses! She tilted her head slightly to follow the Blights’ progress towards their home and pondered what they could do tomorrow. Maybe play some more games? Then she grinned. Perhaps she should introduce her fri- her _girlfriend(!?)_ to Twister!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading everyone!
> 
> Update: Edited to fix my dreadful Spanish, thank you to troubledluz and hyacinth for helping me out with it.


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